Las Vegas Raiders NFL Draft Profile: LSU QB Jayden Daniels

Weaknesses

My biggest worry about Daniels’ game right now is undoubtedly his overall pocket presence. A player who wants to create big plays, he will bail from clean pockets too early at times. While it is not a persistent issue, it could be cleaned up. When faced with broken pockets, he tends to drift backward away from the pressure rather than step up and find an escape lane. 

Despite being an experienced passer, Daniels is still often late to trigger in the quick passing game. Preferring to see it open at times and even just passing up wide-open receivers. This is once again something that doesn’t crop up all the time but when it does, it is a glaring missed play or a would-be turnover at the next level. He flashes the ability to throw with anticipation so I know it is there, but he will have to do so on every snap in the NFL. 

The accuracy at the short and intermediate levels is a question mark as well. An accomplished and lethal downfield passer, he often seems to miss high on passes that seem like layups on the film. With receivers like Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr., it is also quite possible he will have a worse group of wideouts on his NFL team than he did at LSU.

Daniels is also a late bloomer at the college level as he had by far his best season as a senior.